Saturday, October 10, 2009

Rose's Butter-Dipped Dinner Rolls

Saturday, October 10, 2009Last week Jim asked me why I didn't blog about one of Rose's breads again. I told him I couldn't just repeat recipes all the time, or it wouldn't be much of a blog, would it? He agreed, but pointed out that nobody was likely to call me out for making a bread I'd made three years ago. Since it was his birthday week, I decided I could sneak in my favorite dinner roll recipe. If you eat these rolls with butter, they're really triple-butter rolls: butter in the dough, melted butter brushed all over the shaped dough, and more butter when they're served. Whether you think that's over the top or just right depends on your attitude toward butter. My attitude is favorable.

Last week, I said that you should never let bread be the master of you. I took my own advice and made this bread through the first two risings on Friday night, so I'd have enough time to shape them and let them rise again before taking them to a Saturday lunch. Lunch at 12:00 sharp people! (This is Jim's family, all German and heavily into order and routine--as he would be the first to tell you). It worked beautifully.Friday night I made the sponge and the flour mixture, letting it sit long enough so that the sponge started to bubble up through the flour. Here's the point where the butter gets added and everything is mixed together.It takes a few hours to double, then it gets pressed into a rectangle and folded.Back into the bowl. Here, you can either continue with the recipe, or put it in the refrigerator to rise slowly overnight, which is what I did. By the next morning, it has doubled in size again.If your husband gets up earlier than you do, you can tell him to take the bowl out of the refrigerator when he gets up. Then you can have a cup of coffee, read about Obama getting the Nobel peace prize, and get to work. Otherwise, you can have two cups of coffee and also read about everyone's reaction to Obama's getting the Nobel prize, and then get to work.There are instructions for shaping into little round rolls, Parker House rolls, and Cloverlead rolls, but I just made the pan o' buns. You roll them into balls, dip them in butter all over, and place them in a square or round pan, keeping a little distance between them.Within an hour and a half or so, they've risen enough so that they're crowding each other, and they will form themselves into little loaves.After they cool for a few minutes, you can break them apart. They are little visions of loveliness and lightness.I don't generally include Rose's recipes because I did every recipe in the book. If I'd printed all the recipes, and some lawyer called me and accused me of violating a copyright, I wouldn't have a great defense. However, if you want the recipe and don't have the book, you can go to starchefs.com and get it. But the short version of the recipe doesn't have weights, so maybe you should just break down and buy the book. If you make these, just be prepared to perfect your fake-modest disclaimer that, really, it was nothing.

14 comments:

I remember when you made these a while back and am SO glad you blogged about them again! Why? Well, it's that time of year when a fresh dinner roll is most appreciated and, for that matter, it's that time of year when some people start thinking about planning their Thanksgiving dinner.

If you had tried to give us a summer recipe, I might have called you out, but since this is so timely I will thank you for being so wise as to make these rolls. :-D

Good girl!

Hugs,Laura NYC

PS: Jim was right - and I hope you will post whenever you make an old favorite. The BB has so many options, it's especially nice to hear what you think is worth repeating and how it went over for you.

Laura,I'm glad all is forgiven. I'm not going to be in town to make Thanksgiving dinner this year, but if I were, these would be on the menu. Not only are they great dinner rolls, but they're also perfect for the obligatory leftover turkey sandwich.

I think a remake is a really good idea. Now that you are a super bread maker, it is high praise to repeat the recipe. I have often wondered what you bake the most from the BB after finishing the whole collection.

Those are some absolutely GORGEOUS buns... I have a number of go-to dinner roll recipes, but I just might have to give these a try, they look simply lovely!

I've actually been trying to get in touch with you for over a month now- leaving blog comments, etc., but I can't seem to locate your email address, so I don't have a way to contact you directly. I tried to get more information and sign up for Rose's Heavenly Bakers many, many weeks ago, but unfortunately I never heard back from you. To be honest, I was really disappointed, disheartened, and frustrated- especially when the first 10 people to sign up received an autographed copy of the book, which I was waiting to purchase (and I had attempted to do this WAY before other people left comments). I just went back to the group's site and found my name on the blogroll... I was a bit confused because I was awaiting an email from you (I had left my address a number of times) so I could have a few questions answered before I was accepted as a member. If there is ANY way you could shoot me a message so I have a way to talk with you, I would GREATLY appreciate it. Here's my email address again: joy.d.saunders@gmail.com. Thanks for your time and consideration, and I truly hope to hear from you soon.

ECL,I forgot to mention in the post that I still had some melted butter left over after I rolled the balls in butter--so I also basted the rolls in one pan with another coat of butter. I meant to do a taste test to see if I could tell the difference, but the rolls got intermingled, and I don't know which one I got. I may have to do another batch just for the sake of a scientific experiment.